The NHMRC will release a public consultation paper in July 2016. Additionally, it is holding public forums in several capital cities for researchers and organisations to hear from NHMRC and ask questions about the review. Make sure you register to attend.

The HSRAANZ’s response to the Australian Research Councils Engagement and Impact Assessment Consultation Paper argues that a key issue with the impact measurement of Medical and Health Sciences research through the analysis of citations in peer reviewed journals is that Public Health and Health Services research is generally mostly relevant to the jurisdiction in which it is conducted and therefore research undertaken in Australia is less likely to be cited in other jurisdictions than laboratory-based or clinical Medical and Health Sciences research.

Analyses of citations in peer reviewed journals do not reflect impact on healthcare policy and practice and on patient outcomes and population health within Australia. Policymakers do not tend to report in peer reviewed journals, but are more likely to cite research that influences policy and practice in non-peer reviewed government reports and other publications found in the grey literature.

Consideration should therefore be given the expansion of citation analyses to include the grey literature and the inclusion of case studies or exemplars of research that has influenced policy and practice in the assessment of research impact and engagement in the Medical and Health Sciences division.

For a more general research assessment exercise, it might be more appropriate to count significant examples of research translation to active researchers. Analogous to the analysis of average citation rates across research papers within an ANZSRC group, the average frequency and grade of policy or practice impact and engagement across eligible researchers assigned to each ANZSRC group could be estimated.

Assessments of research impact based on citation analyses and case studies or exemplars could be reported separately.

A single, pooled measure of research impact would be more consensus-based and subjective than the numbers driven assessment of citations (noting that quantitative citation measures may provide false quality assurance by not explicitly accounting for differences in research applicability across jurisdictions).

Evidence Matters, the Sax Institute’s monthly e-newsletter, highlights the latest opportunities for researchers interested in collaborating with the Institute. The June issue calls for expressions of interest from researchers to conduct rapid reviews in a range of topic areas. It also covers the latest Sax news, events, research and publications.

Professor Nick Graves looks forward to our 10th Health Services and Policy Research Conference which will be held at Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa, Gold Coast Queensland on Wed 1st –Fri 3rd November 2017. This is a wonderful location for a meeting. The theme is ‘Shifting Priorities: balancing acute and primary care services’ and it’s topical.

The recording from our latest webinar, a panel on on commissioning health care in Australia – reflecting on Primary Health Networks is now available. The webinar incorporated research, policy and practice perspectives on the development and implementation of commissioning in Australia.

The New Zealand Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce and Health Minister, Jonathan Coleman have today announced the opening of applications for a new $7.9 million research fund to help improve the management of long-term health conditions.